Archive for July, 2006

Ningbo Bonded Logistics Park opened April 11 and in the two months since opening foreign trade in the park has reached $6.93 million dollars.
Cargo throughput was 3.906 thousand tons and there are now 30 enterprises dedicated to logistics with the park.

Ningpo, a city of about 800,000 in the municipal area (the greater Ningpo area has a population of six million) thus seems set as one of the major seaports of China. What, perhaps, it should not do is go back to fishing.

In a splendid book called The Junks and Sampans of the Yangtze, G.R.G Worchester wrote ‘no people in the world apparently made so great an advance in the art of fishing; and for centuries past no people have made so little further progress.’
Source: Shippingline.biz

According to a report in Xinhua the International Monetary Fund has forecast the market share of the logistics industry in China will rise to 1 trillion yuan ($US120 billion) by 2010, compared with 461.8 billion yuan ($US55.6 billion) in 1999.

That doubling of value in ten years is not quite as impressive as it might seem.

Post-1978 China saw average real growth of more than 9 percent a year. In several peak years, the economy grew more than 13 percent. Per capita income has nearly quadrupled in the last 15 years.

While the logistics industry is, indeed, growing, it is not growing as fast as the rest of the economy.
Source: Xinhua
Source: Supply Chain

At the China Logistics Awards 2006 Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (HACTLl) was named Air Cargo Terminal of the Year.

These inaugural China Logistics Awards was organised by Freight Transport Buyer Asia and the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing.

Anthony Wong, Hactl’s Managing Director, said, ‘We are pleased to receive the Air Cargo Terminal of the Year title. This is an excellent gift for each and every staff member at Hactl as we are celebrating our 30th anniversary.’

HACTL has had more than enough experience in dealing with air cargo.

HACTL started back in 1974 operating at Hong Kong’s then airport of Kai Tak. This, the original airport, was named after two operators, Ho Kai and Au Tak (nobody remembers them and you can win bets asking how the airport was named) and was used from 1936 for a small domestic airline. From then until 1954 the runway ran parallel to the shore which made landing somewhat exciting.

In 1957 a new runway was built running out to sea oriented at 136.1 degrees and 316.1 degrees, hence its name 13/31. In 1974 came two major developments: a much-needed Instrument Guidance System (IGS) and HACTL.

During its final years— before the opening of the new terminal at Chek Lap Kok — Kai Tak (which mainly meant HACTL) was handling 1.56 million tonnes of freight a year. For HACTL, with this much experience under its corporate belt, getting the award comes as no surprise.
Source: Press Release

You must be careful reading too much into figures supplied by analyst companies. Most analysts in quiet moments will admit that if they are right 50 percent of the time they are doing pretty well. (How would you recognize a company that gets its forecasts right 100 percent of the time? That would be the office with the long line of millionaires holding large handfuls of money begging to be allowed to invest.)

Thus the report by Analysys International that at a compounded annual growth rate of 19.15 percent, China’s logistics management software market size will reach $116 million (RMB932 million) by 2009 is interesting.

Analysys thinks that total market size of third party management software in 2005 the logistics industry in China was US$48.5 million (RMB388 million) in 2005. And it says growth will gradually slow down.

A safe summing up is that China’s logistics management software market is a fair size and will grow, but not, perhaps, as fast as it has in the past.
Source: Anaylsys International